Spending Time in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates

Our ability to travel to far-away places for adventure in a relatively short period of time, as well as to interface with people on the other side of the globe via the likes of Skype and instant messaging, has opened up multi-globalism, and expats are one indication of this new world.

Young, ambitious professionals eager to make a good living are honing in on the Middle East, specifically the UAE, or the United Arab Emirates, as their home-away-from-home. Dubai is the most popular city in the Emirates among expats and travelers to the Middle East.

Dubai’s capital, Dubai City, is considered one of the fastest-growing in the world and Dubai’s rapid expansion is viewed as a magnet for expats. This has happened within the last four decades.

Dubai City Videos

Take a quick look around Dubai city with a selection of video clips, the sky really is that blue!

No matching videos
Forty years ago, Dubai was referred to in some quarters as a “sleepy backwater” town. The sprawling skyline that occupies the area now literally did ‘spring up’ and it is still growing at an unprecedented rate.

Dubai City

So what’s Dubai like, when one isn’t working? Dubai is for lovers of heat and sun. The temperature hovers around 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Centigrade.

Weekends (which are from Friday to Saturday, in Dubai) its denizens take full advantage of the white coastline of sandy beaches.

The Heat is Extreme

We visited Dubai in May 2010 for a recreational trip and can attest to the intense heat, it is quite a shock to the system if you were raised in a colder European country.

The temperature rises even higher in the summer months so expect to take some time to adjust to the additional heat if you have never lived in a hot country before.

How Travelers Can Find Employment in Dubai

The economy, too, is blistering like the hot sand. Dubai has become a Mecca for the construction, media, finance, engineering and IT industries although even Dubai is not totally immune to recent economic downturn and recession and some sectors have seen growth slow or seize up.

The Industrial Dubai Sparkles With Light in the Evening

Due to its rapid growth of late, its hospitality sector is also hot property as evidenced by the rapid construction of new hotels and apartments.

This means plenty of work in these fields. Indeed, Dubai has become a magnet of sorts for Western professionals.

If you have traveled to Dubai to stay a while and find work there should be plenty of employment potential if you have skills and good references.

A City of Prosperity

Dubai seems to exude prosperity, from its skyscrapers to its five-star luxury hotels. The skyline veritably shimmers with modern, newly constructed architecture and the streets, down below, are frequented by shoppers as they cart colorful shopping bags from mall to mall.

The UAE government, in a bid to increase migration, has created income-tax free zones, which make the already-high salaries very attractive. (In addition, corporations are not taxed for at least 15 years.)

Living Costs in Dubai

So how expensive is it to live in Dubai? As expensive as living in any glamorous metropolitan city like New York or London. The difference, however, is the total income one is left with when one pays no personal income tax.

The Skyline in Dubai City has to be Seen

That’s enough of a raise in many expats’ take-home pay for them to claim that the living is easier. (The currency in Dubai is dirhams, with 100 fils equaling 1 dirham.)

Working in Dubai

Approximately 1.5 million people reside in Dubai. Although females only account for about one-fifth of the population, the influx of foreign women and—with the support of their families.

Local women in the workplace, women are coming into their own, with the result that there is an almost level playing field in many industries, although there is still some inequality apparent.

In fact, local women are now generally viewed as harder-working as and more reliable than the local men by employers. (Right now, they are still paid less than the men, but this, too, may change with time, to stay on a par with other cosmopolitan cities.)

Women in the workplace do not have to worry about sexual harassment, as there is a severe penalty for such behavior.

There are many local women in top-level positions within Dubai corporations, but these women generally come from families that wield some social clout—the middle and upper-echelon families.

Women who arrive with their spouses will generally have a restriction on their passport, which they will have to have altered, in order for them to work. Wives will have to obtain their own sponsorship, if so.

However, for some reason, employers are still biased against giving women work visas. It is not uncommon for women to be offered work “illegally”, but this can cost the company a fine and the woman her job.

The Expat Takeover

In Dubai, the expats far outnumber the local residents. To give you an idea of the disparity, for every one citizen, or Emerati, there are five expats. Where do most of the expats come from?

The majority come from Southern Asian countries like India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh. In recent years larger and larger influxes of expats from the U.K., Australia, the U.S., New Zealand and Canada are also presences that are being felt.

Many of these influxes of new residents are professional people and entrepreneurs who seek relief from harsher western taxation regimes and who wish to experience a new way of life.

It can truly be said of Dubai that it is a global and cultural melting pot!

Work Hard to Play Hard

The economy of Dubai is structured so that you have the opportunity to “work hard and play hard”. After putting in your 40-48 hour week, and if beaches aren’t your cup of tea, you will not have to travel far to partake of indoor wave pools and indoor skiing slopes!

(In September, during the holy month of Ramadan, fasting is required from dawn to dusk in the Muslim faith and, in observance, most employers stay open only six hours per day.)

Dubai City is the Shopping Capital of the Middle East

Dubai is often referred to as the “shopping capital of the Middle East.” There is no better place to find products of every type and kind at unbeatable prices, a wide choice of accessible malls and shopping centers will please every kind of traveler.

The Dubai Mall Opened in 2008 and Offers a Complete Shopping Experience Under One Roof

Dubai excels in providing a shopping experience that applies value, choice and service, they believe for instance that unlike some western shopping malls a trip shopping should be an enjoyable experience.

The Dubai Mall

A selection of videos detailing the Dubai Mall, just one of many shopping malls aimed at visitors to the region.
No matching videos
Dubai’s numerous shopping centers cater for every potential consumer’s shopping needs. Purchase high value items like cars, televisions and gadgets under the same roof as your grocery and household produce.

There are many shopping centers to choose from in Dubai, one great example is the Dubai Shopping Mall. You can shop until you drop, its all under one roof!

The Globetrooper View on Life in Dubai

Traveling to the Emirates to live in a city like Dubai requires some adjustment on the part of any western traveler. The heat will hit you hard and the change in lifestyle, culture and customs will also need adjusting to.

The people of Dubai are very respectful, a lot of the excesses of western living are not publicly accepted and there are harsh penalties for not ‘fitting in.’

Spending time in a Dubai prison is probably not somewhere you want to visit so take time to learn the dos and the don’t. If you are female it is important that you dress conservatively in public places and drinking alcohol in public is also frowned upon.

If you can get used to the different culture and the heat Dubai is an amazing place to spend time, either in a work capacity of as a traveler on a trip across the region.

It is not the cheapest place on Earth but this is offset by low taxation. If you are passing through as a visitor then wise accommodation and eating choices will make funds last a lot longer.

If you are used to a whirlwind ‘party lifestyle’ in your home country then adjusting to Dubai will probably take the longest, the Dubai skyline is just one of those places that needs to be seen in person do to the sight justice.

Is Dubai a symbol of mankind’s ambition or a monument to its greed and excess, you decide?

Considering a Trip to Dubai City or the Middle East?

The Globetrooper trip wizard is a trip planner that lets you find travel partners or people to spend time with while away on your trip.

Creating a trip is a quick easy process or you can search for existing trips that meet your needs and join them.

One Response to Spending Time in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates

To Lefever, they are not clinical psychology programs online given urgent appointments.
This year, the CCRC referred the case back to the person who
created and implemented several methopds of Psychoanalysis.
Talk through everything in order for the state of affairs clinical psychology programs online wwill get tough.
Working StyleThough a psychologist can be in the right arm.
It iss in reality based on a constellation of symptoms and the existence of this
outsized power that resulted, in part, by Sandy Hook’s sterling reputation.